Wakiso Business Committee Refuses to Scrutinize Budget over Arrears

In Wakiso, the committee was summoned to start processing the proposed shillings 80 billion budget. However, members told the Chief Administrative Officer-CAO Luke Lokoda that they will work only if they are paid arrears dating back from 2019.

Wakiso district business Committee has refused to process the
district budget for financial year 2020/2021 due to outstanding arrears.

Last week, Raphael Magezi, the Local Government Minister, advised that as the
country is still under lockdown with a ban on public gatherings, members of the
district business committee should meet first to lay the budget and later
scrutinize it so that it is just adopted and passed by the entire council after
lockdown.

The committee comprises of the district vice-chairperson, the Chief
administrative officer, the district speaker and chairpersons of five outstanding
committees.

In Wakiso, the committee was summoned to start processing the proposed
shillings 80 billion budget. However, members told the Chief Administrative
Officer-CAO Luke Lokoda that they will work only if they are paid arrears
dating back from 2019.

The members requested a meeting with the CAO. However, the meeting that lasted
for over one and a half hours never yielded any positive results.

Moments later the chairpersons stormed out of the meeting.

Tom Muwonge, the chairperson of education committee who is also the councillor
representing Kasangati town council says that each of the members is supposed
to get 200,000 shillings per sitting. He adds that members of the committee
normally meet once in two months are each demanding 1.8 million shillings in
arrears.

"Our arrears have accumulated to shillings 1.8 million for each member.
And that is around 10.8 for the six members who have missed out their
allowances. We couldn't go on like that. When we move to another financial year
we are very likely to forget about that money," he said.

Matia Lwanga Bwanika, the Wakiso LCV Chairperson, notes that he wasn’t aware that
the members are demanding arrears since the matter had never been raised. He,
however, wondered why his fellow leaders would choose to worsen the situation
yet they are much aware that the district is in a financial crisis.

"I am a human rights activist and can't side with technocrats who would
want to swindle funds allocated to councillors. However, we are in abnormal
situations. The district has no money. We have even failed to offer a mere bar
of soap to health workers who are at the forefront of fighting the covid19 pandemic,"
Bwanika observed.

Bwanika tried to strike a deal by asking the committee members to
handle the day’s business as they ask the CAO to avail the arrears before the
next scheduled meeting.

However, this hit a dead end as the angry members agreed not to do
any business until they are paid their arrears.